Staff Reporter :
The High Court on Wednesday summoned the lower court records (LCR) of a case filed by Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) against Haji Mohammad Selim, a Member of Parliament from Dhaka-7 constituency, in which he was sentenced for 13 years’ imprisonment by a trial court.
The Special Court-7 of Dhaka has been asked to send the LCR of the case to the High Court by December 7.
The High Court bench of Justice Md Moinul Islam Chowdhury and Justice AKM Zahirul Huq passed the order after holding hearing on a petition filed by the ACC seeking expeditious hearing of Haji Selim’s appeal petition against trial court verdict.
Advocate Khurshid Alam Khan appeared in the court on behalf of the ACC, while Advocate Sayeed Ahmed Raza represented Haji Selim.
Khurshid Alam Khan later said, “The High Court has ordered to send lower court records of the case. The court will pass further order after receiving the documents.”
Sayeed Ahmed Raza said, “After hearing Selim’s appeal, the High Court on January 2 in 2011 acquitted him of the charges by cancelling the special court’s judgement on the technical ground. Then the records of the case were sent to the lower court.”
On last Sunday the Anti-Corruption Commission assigned lawyer Khurshid Alam Khan to conduct the case in the High Court. Then he on Monday filed a petition with the High Court seeking quick hearing of the case. Considering their petition, the High Court bench summoned the records of the case.
The RAB raided Selim’s houses in Lalbagh and arrested his son Erfan, a Dhaka South City Corporation ward councillor, on October 26, a day after Navy Lieutenant Wasif Ahmed Khan filed a case against Erfan and his associates for assaulting him.
The naval officer was assaulted by Erfan and his cohorts at the Kalabagan crossing on October 25 following an altercation after Selim’s car hit the officer’s motorbike.
Various crimes, including grabbing of government and private lands, by Haji Selim were revealed by victims after his son Erfan was arrested and suspended as councillor following the assault on the said officer. In the meantime the ACC also has filed the petition for hearing the case.
The Anti-Corruption Commission on October 24, 2007 filed the case with the Lalbagh Police Station against Haji Selim on charge of possessing wealth worth Tk 269.2 million beyond his known source of income. The trial court on April 27, 2008 sentenced Haji Selim to 13 years’ imprisonment in the case.
Selim filed the appeal in 2009 against the jail term handed down by the Special Judge’s Court-7 on April 27, 2008. The High Court on January 2, 2011 acquitted him of the charges by cancelling the special court’s judgement.
On January 12, 2015 the Appellate Division, responding to an ACC appeal, cancelled the High Court judgement that scrapped the special court verdict sentencing him to 13 years in jail and asked to hold rehearing of Haji Selim’s appeal petition in the High Court.
But the ACC took no move in the last five years in compliance with the directive of the apex court for the disposal of Selim’s appeal. Recently the anti-graft body assigned new lawyer to conduct the case.
